Why I, as a 40k player, am jealous of WHFB right now

Setting aside the new awesome (and crazy expensive models), I am wicked jealous of Warhammer Fantasy Battles right now. 40k gets new models all the time, so what is there to be jealous about...

New Story.

For those of you who don't follow WHFB, there is a new release concerning Nagash and detailing THE END TIMES. I guess this is the first real step forwards since the Storm of Chaos campaign, which really wasn't much of a step forward and pretty much ended with the status quo. I am not the biggest into the lore of Fantasy, but I know a lot of the highlights and why the warhammer world is the way it is. I have been reading alot of spoiler threads on the new Nagash release AND WOW!!!! There is so much new content. Sure there are some new rules and scenarios, but it is really the new fluff progressing the story that seem to be making everyone excited, including me.

Now I know 40k gets a lot of new content all the time, Sanctus Reach being the most recent example. Forge world also keeps adding content in the form of their IA books with things like the Siege of Vraks and Fall of Orpheus. But these are really just adding flesh to the current lore of 40k, and not advancing it in any way.

What is happening A LOT in 40k is the history is being fleshed out. Whether this be through the Space Marine Battle novels or Horus Heresy, it all has the same effect, it illuminates what HAPPENED and not WHAT IS HAPPENING. When it comes down to it, I know what happens at the end of the Horus Heresy. Horus looses, the Emperor is practically dead and the galaxy sucks for the next 10,000 years. Same with the Macharian Crusade. Lord Solar dies and the worlds he conquered fall into civil war and strife Alexander the Great style. Armageddon the Orks are pushed back. Etc. Etc. Even if they do an Age of Apostasy series (which I would love) I know what happens. Vandire dies and the Brides of the Emperor become the Sisters of Battle. (As well a Duology or Trilogy on The Beheading would be cool).

But my point is none of this is NEW. It is all historical. No matter what develops in the past, 40k is still on the edge of the Abyss. Abaddon is sallying forth from the eye, Necrons, Orks and Tyranids are rampaging across the galaxy, The Tau are about to start a 4th sphere of expansion,  etc. etc. It has been like that since 5th edition now. And really since 4th. The last time anything interesting happened was the 13th Black Crusade AND ALL OF THAT HAS BEEN RETCONED OUT OF EXISTENCE.

The only argument I have heard for why the fluff is perpetually stuck on 999.999 M41 is because it would no longer be 40k if they advanced past it. To me this is bull crap. So many of the books and fluff and famous characters exist back in M36-M39, all of which are NOT the year 40000. And even if it went in the year 41000, everyone would understand it is still 40k. The technology of the universe hasn't changed for 10000 years, we aren't expecting it to change any time in the future.

IDEALLY Here is what happens
The final codices are pumped out under 7th ed, establishing a level playing field.
Either 8th Edition or Apocalypse 3rd Ed are released as a capstone, and these progress and detail the events of the 13th Black Crusade and start the Galaxy off on a new chapter of woe and misery. Characters die, factions wax and wane, and True Lords of War (IE Primarch Daemon Princes) reappear in the galaxy at large.
Maybe Ahriman finds the Black Library.
Maybe Guilliman awakes
Maybe Erebus ushers in a new Ruin Storm
Maybe Eldrad stays dead
Maybe a lost loyalist returns (Russ, the Lion, Khan)
Maybe the Void Dragon rises
Maybe the Outsider returns
Maybe Cypher slays the Emperor with the Lion Sword and he is reborn as the Starchild!!!!

ANYTHING, I just want to know WHAT IS NEXT!

Maintaining Motivation

If you read blogs on the hobby of war gaming you are probably keenly interested in some aspect of it. Whether it is painting, playing, background fluff, conversions, etc. etc. there is something that grabs you most of all. The issue is for a lot of people maintaining motivation to do it all. It is definitely a point of contention for me, and I have blogging to add onto it (which I have been slack of of late).

 

For me I love building and converting, I love the fluff, and I really like to game. But to truly reap the rewards of all that, I have to get my army painted. This is where I fall. I enjoy it, and I am a perfectionist when I do it, but it takes me forever and it can get old fast, so I just walk away, and this compromises my hobby efforts as a whole.

How, when this is my list of projects, do I keep going???

Painting my Blood Angels Army (~2 companies worth)

Airbrushing Vehicles

Finish my Thunderbolt

Paint my Imperial Knight

Paint Napoleonic French Line Infantry 

Building a Hobby Table

Building/Painting Terrain

Paint my Blood Bowl Team

Paint my Necromunda Gang

Blogging

Developing BFG-R vessels

40+ Imperial Navy Vessels

30+ Chaos Vessels

Convert DE/Tyranid Vessels

Convert a Necromunda Gang

This is on top of being in the Navy, being a Husband and a Father and trying to get time with my family, maintaining my house, my car, my finances etc. etc.

Well of late I have tried to do several things

1- More attainable goals. 1-2 Marines a week is more doable for me than a squad. And then when I can't get it done, I just leave it for the next week. It is still a goal to be achieved, whether I did it or not. 

2- To do list- I put my little attainable goals on a to do list. This I make ambitious. I know it is counter intuitive to what I just said, but the little goals are something I can knock out in an afternoon, but the to do list is full of these for the week, so I try and have as many little things that I can accomplish as often as possible and overall I get more done this way. I know I am not likely to get everything done, but if I get half of it done as a direct result of the list, then I have at least made progress.

3- When you are bored with what you were doing, do something else. So instead of just brutally crushing through assault marine after assault marine, because it is overall more beneficial to accomplishing my list of projects and getting an army on the table, I have recently just been picking up random models I want to paint and painting them. It actually keeps me more excited and more focused for longer periods of time. They may not play into the immediate picture of finishing that assault squad, it plays into the grander picture of finishing my blood angels.

4- Rewards- Hey if I finish these 2 tactical marines, I will paint that techmarine. If there is something I am eager to work on, I can dangle that in front of my face like a carrot. Now the danger here is to let this interfere with number 3. If the criteria for your reward is just to unsavory to make it worth it, just default to number 3.

5- Deceive yourself- What? Well you see how many projects I have. I used to have all those marines on my desk waiting to be painted. It was so depressing to me. So what did I do? I put them all away. Now I only have like 15 marines out, and it doesn't keep me away from my hobby desk. I can pick one up and work on it and tell myself "I accomplished something" without being reminded that there is a mountain of work still to be done.

I hope these tricks can help you on finishing your projects as well. How do you maintain motivation yourself?

There can be such a thing as "Too Much" when it comes to Imperial Vehicles (humor)

So while FW keeps putting bigger and badder guns on vehicles, one enthusiastic hobbyist may have taken it a step too far...

Proof you can overdo overkill

7th Edition- Owning the Psychic Phase

SO I will do a full review of 7th soon, but I wanted to discuss the biggest change yet first. The psychic phase. Specifically how to own (read BREAK) it...

By introducing the phase to the game, GW has done a few things that will ripple through the meta for eternity. Every phase of the game has players vying for control of it in some way or form. Psychic powers used to be a method to attempt this. Now it is a phase of its own that players will either do what they can to dominate it OR what mitigate the effects the opponent has on them during it. Think back to the introduction of flyers. Pretty much the same thing in that regard.

Because of this effect Psykers are obligatory in virtually ALL armies now. Until codices start coming out with ways to give you warp charge during your opponents psychic phase or to give bonuses to deny the witch rolls without having psykers, the only reliable defense in this phase is to posses psykers of your own.

This really all boils down to the primary driving factor to the psychic phase is warp charge. Warp Charge, for those without 7th yet, is determined by adding up the mastery levels of the psykers you do have and then the player who's turn it is rolling a d6 and adding the result. This really means it is random turn to turn how many dice you have to cast and dispel. Which means to make the phase reliable and predictable for yourself, the best thing to do is take a lot of psykers, and high mastery level at that. This gives you a core of warp charge you can rely on to cast (or deny) devastating powers, the d6 roll being just gravy if it is high, but not truly detrimental if it is low. Plus the more psykers you have, the more squads you can embed them in to improve deny the witch rolls.

So now to get to the point of the post. Breaking the psychic phase. Really this is for all the imperial armies, however since nothing in the allies matrix prevents sharing of Warp Charge, it is usable to an extent by all factions.

Nobody Expects Them

Since you can have unlimited numbers of detachments of any type now OR take unbound armies, your are able to take as many INQUISITORS as you'd like. This mini-codex is really a game changer now with an independent psychic phase. This is because the minimum requirement for an Inquisition detachment is one HQ and the basic HQ in the Inquisition codex is a single Inquisitor. This means that you can take as many one model detachments as you'd like. If you really wanted to mess with some one, you could just take 20+ inquisitors in a game.

Now the basic inquisitor is 25 points, and another 30 to be a Mastery Level 1 psyker with 2 powers. Now these powers don't really matter, because if you are doing this you should take a Mastery Level 4 psyker as your primary detachment HQ and pick powers you want.  So what you are buying with the Inquisitor is a 55 point warp charge. Basically a capacitor.

To make this deal even sweeter, since ALL Imperial Armies are Battle Brothers (so this part is unusable with all other factions) with themselves. Independent Characters can join Battle Brother squads, and as such these inquisitors can attach to your squads in your primary detachment and give them +1 to all Deny the Witch rolls. This takes you from a 1 in 6 chance to a 1 in 3 chance to deny a Warp Charge 1 power. This is possibly worth 55 points on its own.

So taking 5 Psychic Inquisitors with nothing extra would cost 275 points, which isn't cheap, but it brings valuable defense to likely all your Troops and then some, and stabilizes your warp charge pool to at least 6 (5+1 on d6 roll of a 1). Add on any other psykers in your primary list and you are looking at a really good pool for both Offense and Defense. This is not even mentioning any of the specialized wargear that Inquisitors can take.

When it comes down to it, Inquisitors are the Power and Dispell scrolls of 40k. And I am sure you will be seeing a lot more of them in the months ahead.

Last of the Genswick Conversions: Officers, Sergeants and Lord Commissar Creed

For those who don't follow me regularly, I am selling off my Genswick (less than a day left in this Auction) Imperial Guard Astra Militarum and before I get rid of them I wanted to post a few more conversions in the army that I had done. One last hurrah if you will.

First off the Officers

These are all really easy yet effective conversions to evoke the Genswick imagery, especially that of an aristocratic officer corps/ The left is simply a WHFB Empire Duelist with a Bretonnian Men-At-Arms helmet and is a platoon commander. The right is the Imperial Guard Fleet Officer, once more with a helmet. Not really seen is the Bretonnian sheathed sword on the back hanging from his belt to represent a power sword. This too was a platoon commander. The center model is the company commander and is just a Forge World DKK Command HQ Squad Officer with the head removed and a full Bretonnian Men-At-Arms head put in place. Fits right in, perfectly ages him and makes him seem bitter IMO.

Next are Genswick Power Axes

Once more easy conversions that clearly establish what the model is, fit with the Genswick look and are minimal in effort. The one on the left is just a normal Men-at-Arms pike with the part above the hand removed and the majority of a Space Wolf Axe from the SW upgrade sprue added. The one on the right is the Men-at-Arms religious icon banner staff with the top leveled off and the head of a regular SM assault marine power axe attached. These conversions fit perfectly with the long pole weapons I used for CCW and fit with the feel of Genswick, yet clearly are power axes and nothing else.

Finally Lord Commissar Creed Conversion

This one I realized I should've done a little differently after I was already half way through it and I couldn't let the cap go to waste (and I forgot I had the other bit). Hopefully this is inspiration though. To me the Creed model just evoked Imperial Presence and calm, brooding oversight, which is perfect for a Commissar. So this is just the regular Creed model (if you can get Finecast vice metal for this conversion, the old head was nearly impossible to remove). I took the lower half of a Men-at-Arms head and added a peaked cap from the Hellhound kit (unfortunately ruining such an awesome head). I used some green stuff in between and had to sculpt eyes and the bridge of the nose back in, but ultimately got it to read Commissar IMO. An easier way to do this would simply be to use a Leman Russ Tank commander head. Then he is yelling too and the cigar fits a little better IMO.